Roll back

Roll back

Twitch had to roll back some of its new rule changes . What does that mean, “roll back”? Roll back means, to reverse or undo a project. In lesson 167, you learned that “roll out ” means to introduce something, like a new product. Well, “roll back” means to reverse something that you have rolled out, that you have introduced.

Twitch rolled out new policies for streamers. Under the new policies, streamers would get to keep less of what they earn on the platform. And there were restrictions on what independent sponsorship content could show in the middle of their streams.

Streamers were furious. Twitch already keeps a large—I’m somewhat in the industry, I’m telling you, it’s large—they keep a large percentage of the earnings of the creators, 50 percent of subscription payments go to Twitch, 50 percent to the creator. And now they were making it harder for streamers to make money from outside sources.

After a lot of streamers left the platform, and after many others complained, Twitch agreed to roll back some of the new rules. That means, they reversed the new rules. The rules are no longer in effect. Twitch introduced them. They realized their mistake. Then they rolled them back, they canceled the new rules.

Roll back is often used with rules, laws, or policies. A policy could come from a business, a person, or a government.

This happens in national politics if two political parties alternate in power. The party in power wants to roll back policies that the previous president or previous government implemented. In the U.S., the president can introduce some new policies using “executive orders.” If one president makes an executive order, the next president can roll it back.

When Donald Trump took office, he rolled back policies put in place by his predecessor, Barack Obama. When Joe Biden took office, he rolled back some policies put in place by Trump.

It can happen in local politics. In the U.S., most education policy is set by local towns and cities. I read an article about a city school board that made a policy to reduce the summer vacation. Summer vacation often starts in mid-June and lasts for two or two and a half months. During that time, children forget a lot of what they learned the year before. So the city decided to reduce summer vacation to six weeks. But parents and teachers complained, so they rolled the policy back. They canceled it.

Twitter! Things change by the day —when this lesson comes out, I have no idea what that latest news is going to be. But today, as of when I’m recording this, Twitter has limited the number of tweets a person can see in a day. I think it’s 600? There is pressure on Twitter to roll that back, to cancel the policy, to make it like it was before.

See you next time!

And that brings us to the end of Plain English for today, July 24, 2023. Congratulations on making it to the end of another Plain English lesson. Are you on Twitch? Are you a Twitch live streamer? Do you watch live streams on Twitch? Do you now watch them on Kick? I’d love to know. Our Facebook group is the place to answer that question. If you’re not a part of it, join us at PlainEnglish.com/Facebook and tell us your experience watching or streaming on Twitch.

Coming up on Thursday: Say the name “Pat Sajak” and most everyone in the United States will know who that is. You might not know who that is, but you will on Thursday. See you then.